I started playing at age 11 in the 5th grade at Washington Grade School in Royal Oak, Michigan. My drum teacher was Mildred Klien, a gifted violinist, and I am sure that teaching a class of new snare drummers proved to be a mighty cross to bear. My real career took me in another direction, to a large construction company in Chicago where I served as a civil engineer and an officer of the firm. Even though an electric tuner, instead of a pitch pipe, now is needed to help me to get the timpani to the right pitch, at age 82 I'm too old to give it up.